Friday, January 12, 2007

Any of you who read the Janes on even a semi-regular basis (which, you should read regularly, because they rock) knows that that's pretty good. I'm...honored.

*sob* They like me! They really like me!

Other bits:

I discovered a few days ago that I'm allergic to the new pillows we bought just before Christmas. I couldn't figure out why I was waking up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, like literally having to stick my head out the window and cough and wheeze for twenty minutes before my lungs stopped making horrible noises it was actually quite scary). Pillow allergy. Who knew? No sneezing or runny nose, just an almost total inability to inhale.

I so wish I wasn't as far behind on The Shield, because I'd love to discuss it but it's all old news now to anybody watching in the States.

I am waiting with bated breath for the announcement of the Harry Potter release date. I keep getting pre-order solicitations in my email, but I'm not pre-ordering until I know when it's coming out. I'm also trying to convince my husband to drive us up to Scotland so we can haunt some Edinburgh bookstores on Release Eve, but I doubt he'll do it.

Hey, Madonna? Maybe, instead of taking one kid away from his home and family, and thus taking one potential doctor or honest government worker or future leader away from those children who need rescuing, next time you'll think about donating maybe a tenth of your sizeable fortune to the orphanages and schools in that place. So *all* the children there--and gee! Maybe some adults too!--can benefit from your Lady Bountiful act. Grrrrrr.

In short: another great review for The Black Dragon, which pleases me immensely. Non-hypoallergenic pillows suck. Love The Shield. Want Harry Potter. Comment and say hi.

Congrats on the reviews - Dear Author gave it a good grade! I Love stories set in the middle ages, but I'm very picky about historical fiction. This one sounds so goof I'm off to grab a copy. (Don't you just love e-books? Instant gratification!)HUGSSam

Rhys, Gruffydd’s steward, is far too in touch with his feelings for a 12 C man. He and hero discuss hero’s feelings for heroine way too much. Would two real men do this? Hmmmm, I don’t think so. Maybe something like, “Hey man, you’re treating her like shit.” “Fuck off, it’s none of your business.” “I’m just saying, is all.” “Well, you said. Now let’s get back to sword practice.”

Yeah, it's a pisser about celebrity rescue/adoption/photo-ops. Those regions in Africa and Asia would do much better with a concerted effort by the world community to eradicate AIDS (and other diseases) and educate the local people. That's one thing I like about Bill Gates--the guy actually coughs up the dough, and encourages other filthy-richies to do the same.

Unfortunately, the only people who actually spend money on orphanages in the middle east is the freaking Taliban. How screwed up is that?

And what the hell was in those pillows? Me, I'm allergic to virtually everything, suffer from athsma and have a deadly allergy to nuts, to boot. I'm always careful, although you can innure yourself over time. Of course, my ever loving husband often announces that when he gets sick of me, all he has to do is rub walnut shells all over my pillowcase, and let the insurance money roll in. Ha ha. He's quite the charmer.

Unrepentantly evil bad guys who look hot in black leather are my personal favorites. Maybe that's the draw for some of the vampires. Just so long as they don't have sissy affectations like twirling those Snidely Whiplash moustaches!

And according to Amazon.com HP 7 is due out in the US March 31, 2007. We shall see.

I totally agree on the black leather clad bad boys. I like it when they enjoy being bad! (Well, I dig tortured too, although not generally tortured vampires. Vapires I like arrogant and comfortable with themselves, none of this "I've been alone for centuries, woe is me" crap.)

I like it when they're ruthless and cold, too. Mmmm.

Yep, I generally think stars should stay out of politics altogether, but if you're rich, I appreciate the charity work and calling attention to worthy causes. Spending all that money simply to self-aggrandize...bah.

I'm all for celebs using their fame (or infamy) to promote a worthy cause. But if they're not prepared to shell out a little dough, too, then they can stick their fame up their you-know-whats and rotate.

One of the reasons Bill Gates got so heavily into charity work was the fact that for years he believed in the concept of "trickle down." When he discovered that "trickle down" doesn't actually exist in corporate America (due to the increasing value placed on investment, and the persistent devaluation of honest work by my parents' generation, but let's not get me started) he decided to do something about it. And he figured the only way he could shame the super-rich into parting with some of their hardly-earned billions was to make a big deal of doing it himself. This is not a guy who decided to sponsor a couple third-world kids and become a big brother. He's given millions. In fact, I read he's planning on quitting the CEO racket altogether, to focus on his charitable foundation. Do I sound like his cheerleader?

As for Bono, I'm not waving my pom poms. As far as I know, all he is is a mouthpiece for hyper-political causes. If he's given money to anything, he really ought to be more obvious about it. Then maybe I'd be able to look at him without thinking he's just using political causes for shameless self-promotion. Same with Madonna. It pisses me off that they figure their fame exempts them from actually putting some real cash on the table. "Oh, my noteriety is worth much more than my dollars!" Fuck that. Give me one good reason why they can't give both. And if you do put your money where your mouthpiece is, Madonna, Bono, whoever, let me know, so I can stop hating you. It's no good for my Karma.

But if they're not prepared to shell out a little dough, too, then they can stick their fame up their you-know-whats and rotate.

Totally agree! I used to get so irritated when people talked about everything Michael Jackson did for children (before we knew what he was really doing to the children--although we suspected). Oh, so he set up a charity in his name? Big deal! So other people get to donate their money and he takes the credit. Yeah. Why doesn't he produce a single and donate the entire proceeds? (Again, this was some time ago, when a single by him would have been purchased by more than delusional idiots and NAMBLA members.)

My cyincal view of the world and money makes me see these people as rich bastards trying to avoid paying taxes. And stars doing public sevice announcements aren't doing it for the charity of it, they got busted doing whatever they're telling you not to do.

It's funny. I worked for a very large credit card bank who made this big deal out of charity work. And one of the things you did in your first year was take a day to do something for charity on the company's dime (like, I had to help paint a children's therapy center and got paid for the day.)

They asked us at the end what we thought about what we'd done, and we all gave the bullshit expected responses about how our company was so committed and wonderful they were actually paying us to do volunteer work and weren't they just the mostest caring company evah...and what we were all thinking, at least I know I was, was that they were getting to write off all of our salaries for the day as a nice deduction when tax time came.